A Day to say Yes

Last week Lover was out of town for training, for the entire week. To say I was a little terrified of managing everything, along with the kiddos, would be putting it mildly. But then I remembered that I choose to not live in fear, and did much better. I planned out as much as I could (including what to eat for every meal, so I didn't have to think about it again) and also planned in a few activities, since I knew that would both help the time go by faster, and would also be fun for my little social butterfly.



We live less than ten minutes from our local zoo. It's a great zoo, not so big that you are overwhelmed trying to see everything, but not so small that you finish in two minutes and end up bored. When we woke up Wednesday morning and realized that it would be nearly 60 degrees that day, I made a command decision that we would be going to the zoo.



Javi (and I!) needed to do something where he could run and get out his energy, explore to his heart's content, and not hear "no, don't touch/no, leave your sister alone/no, get down from there" all day long. The zoo was the perfect choice.



We explored to our heart's content, howling like wolves, barking at the sea lions, and visiting each and every exhibit.



Javi insists that all birds are chickens, and upon spotting any type of bird, chirps out "cluck CLUCK!" Cracks me up every time.


Our zoo opened an Africa exhibit a few years ago, and this spring two lion cubs were born. They were so adorable, soaking up the sunshine on their big rock and wrestling with each other. I could have watched them for hours.





We ate our sandwiches next to the lion exhibit. Javi is obsessed with these little matchbox cars, and has also recently discovered that he has pockets! At any given point he has between two and four cars in his hands or tucked in his pockets.







I love the fact that this boy has no fear. At the playground there were two ways to get up to the slides: a long set of stairs, or a rock climbing wall. Without skipping a beat this boy muscled his way up the rock wall, and dominated it, if I do say so myself. This is the look of total concentration as he climbs.





I'm so glad that I packed us all up and made the effort. The weather was great, and we had so much fun!



 

The Way Back

Today we're continuing with the backyard topic. Our lot is long and narrow, with the house at the front, a looooong, skinny driveway and a two car garage at the very back of the lot. To the left of the garage is a skinny little garden bed, and a bunch of grass (my retractable clotheslines stretch over this area), and at the very back of the lot there is another skinny garden bed.



Those poles that my clotheslines hook up to (you can juust see them in this pic) mark the beginning of the skinny beds. I don't really have before pictures of this area, because it was just... yuck. Mostly ivy, Jumanji vines and overgrown maple saplings. Every year I make a little more progress on this area. In the very back are our blackberry beds,





and the neighbor's lilac tree hangs over the fence. Eventually I want this whole area filled with lush berry vines... it's coming along little by little. I think the soil needs some help back here. Here's the skinny bed on the left.



I think it was our first (or maybe second) summer here that we tried planting a vegetable garden back here. It did terrible. Again, the soil isn't terribly healthy, and it doesn't get full sun all day, so the veggie plants never grew much. We're going to try again next summer in one of the beds closer to the house and see if they do better.



Anyways, these beds are full of black eyed susan plants, which I love. My friend Melissa let me dig up as much of her plants as I wanted a few years ago, and this was the first summer that they've really been showstoppers. She also gave me this cool red flowering butterfly bush,



I want this bed to be very natural and "wildflower" looking, hence the black eyed susans. Oh! And there are tons of daffodils back here in the spring. I kind of think of this area as a easy, carefree cutting garden. I think this area needs some low, flowering plants in some bright colors and that's about it. No muss, no fuss, right?



 

Fall Family Fun Festival

Last week, our church hosted a Fall Family Fun Festival. That's a lot of F's to type, especially when the F key on your keyboard is missing! It was a lot of fun taking the kids and watching Javi do "big kid" things. He's still at the age where he can play on a playground for hours, or line up his cars, or just going for a walk is super exciting, but it was fun to see him try to participate in more "planned" games. He was a good sport for it all, and really enjoyed himself, even though he looks so serious in these pictures. That's just his learning face. He studies everything very intently when he is trying to figure something out.



He gobbled down a bag of popcorn, but shared when asked, and I was so proud of him. Then he tried out the wheelbarrow rides. Such a fun idea. We got apples, caramel and cider, and he polished off a donut quicker than you can say "lickety split." He was game to try out the sack races...




And even lined up with all the kids, but when the race started he just stood there, in his sack. :) And then asked to get out. Maybe next year?



The teens at our church do great face painting, and we waited in line for Javi to get the Batman logo on his cheek. He was unsure about the whole thing while it was being painted, even though he was sitting with Daddy.




But then I took his picture and showed him, and his face lit up. Da na na na Batman! And all smiles. Too cute.



But what really captured all of his attention was the band in the middle of the commons. We have some amazingly talented musicians at our church and they were doing some fun "folksy" versions of old hymns with guitars, banjos and a bass - so fun. Javi has loved music since before he was born - we would go to a movie and he would do kicks and flips during the really good soundtracks.



He stood and listened to the music song after song, completely enraptured. Other people commented on how young he was to be enjoying music, he was just completely caught up in the songs. I often look in the mirror when we're driving and see him tapping his hands on his thighs to the beat of whatever song is on the radio.



I love to spend time wondering if Javi will be musical as he grows up, and if so, what his instrument of choice will be. I'm hoping maybe the violin? :)


If you're wondering, this is what Keilana did while at the festival. She didn't even want a donut. :)

The Great Outdoors 2013

I had to take a couple days off after all that posting in October. I was beat! But after a couple of days away I am ready to start writing again and I thought I'd start by sharing what our backyard currently looks like.  Correction, this is what our yard looked like in early August. Right now it is overrun by three bajillion leaves. I can't figure out why, since we have no tall trees on our property. Leaves know to stay in their own yards, right?

Ok, so that first spring after we bought the house, and all the snow melted, I started exploring the gardens. The first one I cleared out is what we call the peony garden.



After pulling out all the dead stuff, I let it all grow that year to see what came up. Basically there was a big ol' peony bush (white ones) and a wild rose bush. There were also two small trees that I continually chop back (trees are hard to kill!) and a bunch of weeds and random stuff.



This is the garden bed that I really enjoy. It's filled with spring flowering plants, and I find myself out there every spring working on it, tweaking things, adding plants, etc. By the time summer rolls around, I'm sick of the heat, the humidity and the yardwork, so the rest of the yard is very low maintenance.



At the end of the first summer, the peony bed looked like this. Those tall green plants on the left hand side of the picture are milkweeds, and they are the bane of my existence. They are everywhere. I went back through my posts and found a picture of the wild rose and the peonies in bloom. They are gorgeous. 



By the way, I am in love with the weathered picket fence that we have on this side of our property. So much so, in fact, that when our neighbor was powerwashing and sealing his side of the fence this summer, and offered to do our side for us, I politely declined. I love the contrast of it against the plants, and it is a fantastic photo backdrop.

This is my peony bed as of August. So much healthier and prettier, right?



I've added daylily plants, divided the peony into four separate plants, and maintained that rose bush so it's actually a bush and not a wild thing. We also transplanted a knockout rose back here but it's not doing that well in this spot either. I'll give it one more season.


There are also a few Echinacea plants, Russian sage and some Asiatic lilies. One of my favorite plants was a gift five years ago from my sister in law, a wine n' roses Weigela. It has the prettiest dark red foliage, and has hot pink blooms for my birthday every year.


The daylilies in this bed were supposed to be deep red with a yellow center, and low to the ground like a stella d'oro daylily. They are, in fact, yellow and light peach, and much taller like a regular lily. But that's what I get for buying plants from Walmart, right? I think next year these are getting the boot from here, and getting transplanted next to the garage. We'll see.

Do you enjoy gardening, or is your yard all grass? Tell me all about it in the comments. :)